IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/25224.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Approximate interpersonal comparisons of well-being

Author

Listed:
  • Pivato, Marcus

Abstract

We propose a mathematical model of `approximate' interpersonal comparisons of well-being, in terms of an incomplete preorder over a space of `psychophysical states'. We argue that this model is consistent with people's intuitions about interpersonal comparisons, intertemporal preferences, and changes in psychological identity over time. We then construct several simple mathematical models to illustrate the versatility of this approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Pivato, Marcus, 2010. "Approximate interpersonal comparisons of well-being," MPRA Paper 25224, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:25224
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25224/1/MPRA_paper_25224.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herden, G., 1989. "On the existence of utility functions," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 297-313, June.
    2. Herden, G., 1989. "Some lifting theorems for continuous utility functions," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 119-134, October.
    3. Sen, Amartya, 1970. "Interpersonal Aggregation and Partial Comparability," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(3), pages 393-409, May.
    4. Marc Fleurbaey & Peter Hammond, 2004. "Interpersonally comparable utility," Post-Print hal-00247066, HAL.
    5. Herden, G., 1989. "On the existence of utility functions ii," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 107-117, October.
    6. Hausman,Daniel M. & McPherson,Michael S., 2006. "Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521608664, December.
    7. Sen, Amartya K, 1972. "Interpersonal Comparison and Partial Comparability: A Correction," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 40(5), pages 959-959, September.
    8. William Thomson, 2007. "Fair Allocation Rules," RCER Working Papers 539, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
    9. Jack Stecher, 2008. "Existence of approximate social welfare," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(1), pages 43-56, January.
    10. Blackorby, Charles, 1975. "Degrees of Cardinality and Aggregate Partial Orderings," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 43(5-6), pages 845-852, Sept.-Nov.
    11. Amartya Sen, 1997. "Maximization and the Act of Choice," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(4), pages 745-780, July.
    12. Sondermann, Dieter, 1980. "Utility representations for partial orders," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 183-188, October.
    13. Jaffray, Jean-Yves, 1975. "Semicontinuous extension of a partial order," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 395-406, December.
    14. Baucells, Manel & Shapley, Lloyd S., 2008. "Multiperson utility," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 329-347, March.
    15. Prasanta K. Pattanaik & Yongsheng Xu, 2007. "Minimal relativism, dominance, and standard of living comparisons based on functionings," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 59(2), pages 354-374, April.
    16. Robbins, Lionel [Lord], 1981. "Economics and Political Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(2), pages 1-10, May.
    17. Sen, Amartya K, 1977. "On Weights and Measures: Informational Constraints in Social Welfare Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(7), pages 1539-1572, October.
    18. K. J. Arrow & A. K. Sen & K. Suzumura (ed.), 2002. "Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare," Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    19. Hausman,Daniel M. & McPherson,Michael S., 2006. "Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521846295.
    20. Pivato, Marcus, 2010. "Aggregation of incomplete ordinal preferences with approximate interpersonal comparisons," MPRA Paper 25271, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Barrett, Martin & Hausman, Daniel, 1990. "Making Interpersonal Comparisons Coherently," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 293-300, October.
    22. Herve Moulin, 2004. "Fair Division and Collective Welfare," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262633116, December.
    23. Fine, Ben, 1975. "A Note on "Interpersonal Aggregation and Partial Comparability"," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 43(1), pages 169-172, January.
    24. Marc Fleurbaey, 2007. "Social choice and the indexing dilemma," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 29(4), pages 633-648, December.
    25. Duggan, John, 1999. "A General Extension Theorem for Binary Relations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 1-16, May.
    26. Herden, G., 1995. "On some equivalent approaches to Mathematical Utility Theory," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 19-31, February.
    27. YIlmaz, Özgür, 2008. "Utility representation of lower separable preferences," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 389-394, November.
    28. Michael Mandler, 2006. "Cardinality versus Ordinality: A Suggested Compromise," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1114-1136, September.
    29. Pivato, Marcus, 2010. "Risky social choice with approximate interpersonal comparisons of well-being," MPRA Paper 25222, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    30. Ok, Efe A., 2002. "Utility Representation of an Incomplete Preference Relation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 429-449, June.
    31. Peleg, Bezalel, 1970. "Utility Functions for Partially Ordered Topological Spaces," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(1), pages 93-96, January.
    32. Donaldson, David & Weymark, John A., 1998. "A Quasiordering Is the Intersection of Orderings," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 382-387, February.
    33. Arrow, Kenneth J, 1977. "Extended Sympathy and the Possibility of Social Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(1), pages 219-225, February.
    34. Evren, Özgür & Ok, Efe A., 2011. "On the multi-utility representation of preference relations," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4-5), pages 554-563.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pivato, Marcus, 2010. "Aggregation of incomplete ordinal preferences with approximate interpersonal comparisons," MPRA Paper 25271, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Pivato, Marcus, 2010. "Risky social choice with approximate interpersonal comparisons of well-being," MPRA Paper 25222, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Marcus Pivato, 2015. "Social choice with approximate interpersonal comparison of welfare gains," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 79(2), pages 181-216, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pivato, Marcus, 2009. "Social choice with approximate interpersonal comparisons of well-being," MPRA Paper 17060, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Pivato, Marcus, 2013. "Social welfare with incomplete ordinal interpersonal comparisons," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 405-417.
    3. Pivato, Marcus, 2010. "Aggregation of incomplete ordinal preferences with approximate interpersonal comparisons," MPRA Paper 25271, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Marcus Pivato, 2015. "Social choice with approximate interpersonal comparison of welfare gains," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 79(2), pages 181-216, September.
    5. Bosi, Gianni & Herden, Gerhard, 2012. "Continuous multi-utility representations of preorders," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 212-218.
    6. Evren, Özgür & Ok, Efe A., 2011. "On the multi-utility representation of preference relations," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4-5), pages 554-563.
    7. Herden, Gerhard & Pallack, Andreas, 2002. "On the continuous analogue of the Szpilrajn Theorem I," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 115-134, March.
    8. Athanasios Andrikopoulos, 2011. "Characterization of the existence of semicontinuous weak utilities for binary relations," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 13-26, January.
    9. Pivato, Marcus, 2010. "Risky social choice with approximate interpersonal comparisons of well-being," MPRA Paper 25222, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Marcus Pivato, 2013. "Risky social choice with incomplete or noisy interpersonal comparisons of well-being," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 40(1), pages 123-139, January.
    11. Pivato, Marcus, 2013. "Multiutility representations for incomplete difference preorders," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 196-220.
    12. Sakamoto, Norihito, 2020. "Equity Principles and Interpersonal Comparison of Well-being: Old and New Joint Characterizations of Generalized Leximin, Rank-dependent Utilitarian, and Leximin Rules," RCNE Discussion Paper Series 7, Research Center for Normative Economics, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    13. Pedro Hack & Daniel A. Braun & Sebastian Gottwald, 2022. "Representing preorders with injective monotones," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 93(4), pages 663-690, November.
    14. Ok, Efe A., 2002. "Utility Representation of an Incomplete Preference Relation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 429-449, June.
    15. Reiko Gotoh & Naoki Yoshihara, 2018. "Securing basic well-being for all," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(4), pages 422-452, October.
    16. John A. Weymark, 2017. "Conundrums for nonconsequentialists," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 48(2), pages 269-294, February.
    17. Itzhak Gilboa & Fabio Maccheroni & Massimo Marinacci & David Schmeidler, 2010. "Objective and Subjective Rationality in a Multiple Prior Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(2), pages 755-770, March.
    18. Eric Danan, 2010. "Randomization vs. Selection: How to Choose in the Absence of Preference?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(3), pages 503-518, March.
    19. Quartieri, Federico, 2022. "A unified view of the existence of maximals," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    20. Uyanik, Metin & Khan, M. Ali, 2022. "The continuity postulate in economic theory: A deconstruction and an integration," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    interpersonal comparisons; utility; well-being; welfare; intertemporal choice; metapreferences; multi-utility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:25224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.